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I've only read The Fellowship of the Ring, but I remember listening to an audio adaption of The Hobbit, it was very good, each character had unique voices and there were sound effects. Looking forward to the movie.

Tolkien wrote the Hobbit intending it initially as a children's story (remember the onomatopoeia in it?) and but couldn't avoid dumping a lot of stuff in it as background along with some fairly adult complexity towards the end.

When my sons were young, I tried reading the Hobbit to them but it was a failure each time we tried.

Oddly they were entranced by LOTR and I ended up reading the entire thing aloud to them (twice, once for each son and often the older one would wander by and sit during bedtime story for #2 son).

Yes, I fully understand that, which is why I said the PJ LOTR is as good as it gets even with the quirks. I'll undoubtedly see the Hobbit -- its just more of a quirky book to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vexx

The Silmarillion was written intentionally to read like a "bible" or sage of mythologies -- it never really was meant as more than background reference to document the mythos the people of LOTR grew up with.

Chronologically Tolkien began creating things in a grand overarching "universe" which is reflected in the Silmarillion FIRST.

Later on he would develop individual parts of the world/ages on and off. The whole "realm" was his ... err ... passion/obsession/hobby/creative outlet.

The Hobbit was indeed a story to be read to his children, who had been hearing bits and pieces of papa's stories now and again, and it was the first printed book. However, a lot of other material had already been developed in different stages and different ... err ... "episodes" (for lack of a better word).

The trilogy (technically 6 books - each book is a compilation of two "books") was much more reflective of the "serious" quality of his writing - as in the silmarillion, and the endless notes and revisions he had (posthumously published in the "lost tales" volumes and other books by his son Christopher ... and still being published iirc).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

You may be the only person I know who stopped after "Fellowship"!

Well, believe it or not I have known a handful of folks who loved the Hobbit and could not stand anything else Tolkien wrote. Go figure?

Memories from the Lord of the Rings films come back. And the heacy interest in all the novels that followed it. I sense it will happen again.

Though I'm fairly sure these two films, while they will follow the book, will not be childrens book level films. Not if they continue using the style they had in the previus three films.

But I love that the films will flow together because it is made by the same people with the possible returning cast being the same (elves and wizards mostly...but also Gollum). Also we will get to see stuff that was only talked about in the novel...the stuff Gandalf was doing in the south for much of it.

I also remember that in one of the commentaries from the other films, that Peter Jackson has specifically saved the Bag End set, partly because it was a nice piece and partly in case he every got around to making the Hobbit...which, now, he is.

And don't tell me you wouldn't want to live in a home like Bag End. A place like that seems alomst tailor made for hot places like Arizona. Only the doors would need to be changed for safety reasons.

Tens of millions of readers have fantasized about living in Bag End. That put a lot of pressure on PJ, but he did a helluva job.

I think PJ will strike a middle ground with these two films. The Hobbit by necessity is going to have a lighter tone than the LotR films, but I suspect he'll make is slightly grittier than the book was, for the most part.

500 million into the two films (part 1 & part 2) is a lot considering that the trilogy is just over half of that.I hope peter jackson makes it good and gets really in depth with bilbo's adventure, Also Dragonnnnn :P

Is there any concrete information about the material the second film will cover? Anything at all? At first I heard it was going to be background events that didn't explicitly occur in The Hobbit novel so much as in supplementary materials, but who knows if that had any truth.